Peso Devaluation Hurts Border Businesses
By ABC-7 Reporter Darren Hunt
EL PASO — Aside from Wall Street, there are other factors affecting our region, such as Mexico’s peso devaluation.
As the value falls, so do sales in El Paso!
Several local financial advisors have been quick to point out that the Sun City is somewhat of an island when it comes to the national economy. But it’s a completely different story when it comes to the falling peso .
What’s happening on Wall Street may be grabbing all the headlines, but it’s “peso problems” that are impacting the Borderland even more.
“I’ve seen less people shopping at Wal-Mart and at the Targets,” East El Pasoan Melissa Lindsay said. “Also, Downtown is pretty empty.”
Gerardo Gutierrez, general manager of Barriga’s Mexican Restaurant in the Las Palmas Marketplace, has felt the effect of a dwindling peso.
“A lot of our customers we have at this restaurant come from Juarez to shop in the shopping center and then they come to eat here at the restaurant,” Gutierrez said. “I think right now people are thinking twice about coming here to shop because of the devaluation of the peso.”
Walking through the parking lot at Las Palmas Marketplace on the Eastside Monday, not only do you see fewer cars than usual, you see fewer cars from Mexico.
“There’s a lot less plates from the other side,” Lindsay said. “It is affecting us.”
According to the city’s economic development department, Mexican shoppers spend $2.2 billion annually in El Paso. And that’s projected to grow 5.5 percent annually based on 25 million border crossings last year.
“The peso devaluating is not good news,” said Ana Gonzalez, communications and marketing specialist with the El Paso Hispanic Chamber of Commerce. “Looking and hearing what people are saying, there are more conservative consumers.”
And that’s not good for those of us on the border, who depend on big business from Mexico.
“We’re hoping that the peso will bounce back,” Gonzalez said. “We’re hoping for good news soon.”
After reaching 14 pesos to the dollar in some places last week, putting the peso at its lowest value since 1996, it has evened off the past few days at about 13 to the dollar.
